Gordon Brown will today continue efforts to secure a coordinated world response to the economic downturn at next week's G20 summit in London, meeting global bank chiefs, addressing MEPs and embarking on a foreign visit.

The prime minister will take part in a debate on the crisis at the European parliament in Strasbourg on the first leg of a tour that will also take in New York, Brazil and Chile.

Brown, who yesterday spoke to the US president, Barack Obama, about the impending gathering of leading nations, was starting the day by meeting international banking chiefs at Downing Street with the chancellor, Alistair Darling.

Chief executives from major countries across the world will be urged to restore lending both in the UK and globally and warned of the risks to the global economy of a return to protectionism.

The Financial Services Authority chairman, Lord Turner, will present them with his reform proposals for banking regulation, which Brown has promoted as a blueprint for other nations.

Brown's speech to MEPs, his first such address as prime minister, comes days after a summit of EU leaders backed a number of emergency measures, including doubling support available to struggling former eastern bloc economies.

Last week's European council also agreed a further $100bn (£69bn) loan to the International Monetary Fund for emergency bail-outs in the developing world and a €5bn (£4.7bn) package of spending on renewable energy and broadband.

Brown told MPs yesterday that EU leaders had made proposals to "reshape the global financial and trading system" and do what was necessary to build economic recovery across the world, including rejecting protectionism, "that history tells us in the end protects no one".

"The council was clear that by acting together the EU can put its financial sector on a sound footing, get credit flowing to the real economy and protect its citizens from the worst impacts of this crisis," he said.

The G20 was top of the agenda when Brown and Obama enjoyed what the White House called a productive 25-minute discussion yesterday – which Washington hopes to repeat before the president travels to the UK.

Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan were also discussed by the two men, who met face-to-face earlier this month when Brown became the first European leader to visit the new president.

Brown hopes to use the gathering of leading nations to forge a "global new deal" although the US administration has said the president was not seeking to negotiate "specific commitments".

Downing Street defended the prime minister's extended tour, insisting that Latin American countries would "play a very important role" in fighting the economic downturn.

"It is crucial that they are part of the debate about how we deal with the ongoing difficulties in the international economy," his spokesman told reporters.

Among the leaders Brown is expected to meet on the trip is Argentina's president, Cristina Fernández, who is expected to raise the issue of the Falkland islands with him.

Fernández has made the issue of the islands a personal priority, announcing in her inaugural speech that Argentina's sovereignty was non-negotiable and repeating the claim on the 26th anniversary of the 1982 invasion last year.

She is expected to use the opportunity of meeting Brown to set out her position on the islands, which were restored to UK rule after a war which cost the lives of 255 British service personnel.

Brown's spokesman confirmed that the pair were expected to meet but added that it would "come as no surprise to anybody that our position on the sovereignty of the Falkland islands has and will remain unchanged".